Portable hair dryer

ABSTRACT

An air heating and blowing unit is connected with an arched tube which is designed to be held in the hand and swept forwardly and rearwardly over the crown of the head with portions of the tube on either side of the head. The tube has a plurality of perforations in the inside curve of the arch which deliver an inverse fan-like array of jets of heated air toward the head. In one form the tube is connected with the heater and blower unit by a flexible hose. In another it is mounted on a hand held heater blower unit.

[ 1 Jan. 21, 1975 1 PORTABLE HAIR DRYER [75] Inventor: Samuel L. McNair,Overland Park,

Kans.

[73] Assignee: Dazey Products Company, Kansas City, Mo.

22 Filed: Feb. 11, 1974 21 Appl. No; 441,359

FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 466,897 2/1969 Switzerland 34/99 733,4385/1933 France 34/99 165,318 11/1933 Switzerland 276,864 7/1951Switzerland 357,901 10/1931 Great Britain 34/99 Primary Examinerl(ennethW. Sprague Assistant ExaminerJames C. Yeung Attorney, Agent, orFirm-Lowe, Kokjer, Kircher, Wharton & Bowman [57] ABSTRACT An airheating and blowing unit is connected with an arched tube which isdesigned to be held in the hand and swept forwardly and rearwardly overthe crown of the head with portions of the tube on either side of thehead. The tube has a plurality of perforations in the inside curve ofthe arch which deliver an inverse fan like array of jets of heated airtoward the head. In one form the tube is connected with the heater andblower unit by a flexible hose. In another it is mounted on a hand heldheater blower unit.

3 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures PORTABLE HAIR DRYER BACKGROUND AND SUMMARYOF THE INVENTION Portable hair dryers have been in existence for manyyears. Traditionally, in one form they have included bonnets made offabric or other sheet material. The bonnet is fitted over the head andmeans are provided for introducing a supply of heated air to and throughthe interior of the bonnet so as to pick up moisture from and dry thehair.

More recently another form of instrument has come into use. This unit,rather than having a bonnet, is designed to be used for localized, orspot,? drying. This is a hand held unit and is ordinarily employed inconjunction with styling the hair, i.e., shaping it while at the sametime drying to obtain a desired configuration. The hand held units ofthis type, of which I am aware produce a relatively small stream ofheated air and are not ordinarily used for drying the entire hair mass,as for example, when the hair is completely done up or after washing.

The present invention is directed toward providing a non-bonnet typehair dryer having a flow directing and controlling component which isheld in the hand of the user and manipulated to deliver the heated airto the head and has the capability of being used as a dryer forobtaining complete drying in a fraction of the time that would berequired with known hand held units.

A further object of the invention is to provide a hair dryer in whichthe hand held component is quite easy to use in the sense of the lack ofcomplexity of manual operations that are required to use it. A featureof the invention in this respect is that it is capable of directing andcontrolling'the flow of heated air so that it issimultaneously'delivered toward the sides of the head and over the crownwhilebeing held in one hand and in a comfortable position for the armand holding hand.-

A further advantage of the invention is that it provides a dryer inwhich the relative size of the portions of the controlled heated airstream at the sides and crown are such that the crown receives thegreater volume of air per unit of time as compared with the sides.Stated another way, in my invention the flow of heated air deliveredacross the crown is sufficiently greater than that at the sides that thecrown and sides are completely dried at approximately the same.

A still further feature and advantage of the invention is that itprovides an arrangement which permits the use of a wide variety ofblower and heater units, including stationary as well as portable andhand held units.

Other and further objects of the invention together with the features ofnovelty which are appurtenant therewith will appear in the course of thefollowing description.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION In the accompanying drawing, which forms a part ofthe specification and is to be read in conjunction therewith, and inwhich like reference numerals indicate like parts in the various views;

FIG. I is a perspective view showing a preferred form of hair dryeraccording to my invention; and

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the hand held component of thedryer, parts being broken away and parts shown in sections for purposesof illustration.

In FIG. 1 I have shown a typical and preferred combination embodying myinvention. It consists of the heating and blowing unit 10, an applicator11 for directing heated air toward and ,into the hair, and a couplingmeans in the form of a flexible hosel2 for connecting the unit 10 withthe applicator 11.

The heating and blowing unit 10 may be of any known design, such asthose currently in use with bonnet type hair dryers. The details of thestructure play no part in the present invention. It will be understoodthat it includes a blower and a heater and that the blower and heatercombine to deliver a stream of heated air to a discharge outlet 10a forcommunication to the applicator 11. As an example of the satisfactoryblower and heater unit, reference is made to the disclosure of US. Pat.No. 3,304,625, issued Feb. 21, 1967.

The applicator is in the form of an arched tube having an inner curvedportion 11a. The curvature of the tube is made such that the tube has acenter portion which is adapted to extend over the crown of the headwith side portions adapted to come down on either side of the head.Preferably the inner curved portion 11a is flattened so as to provide aband-like surface. The tube may be made of any cross-section consistentwith providing an air flow passage extending from the extreme end of thehand grip 11b to the closed tip 11c at the other end. For greatestefficiency the passageway should also taper in diminishing transversedimensions from inlet to tip, as is generally shown in FIG. 2. Theapplicator can be made of any structural material, but I prefer amoldable plastic for reasons of weight and cleaniness.

The tube is provided with a hand grip 11b which is tubular an'dprovidesfor passage of air longitudinally therethrough from the open end11d thereof to the main portionof the tube.

The band like inner curve of portion 11a is preferably of uniform widthalong the length of the curve. The tube wall which is defined by suchportion is provided with outlet means in the form of a plurality ofperforations 12, the axes of which are normal to a tangent to the curve(at the inside wall of the band-like portion 11a of the tube). Theperforations thus provide means of establishing inverse fan-like arraysof air jets which are focused generally toward the area bounded by thearched tube and, when in use, toward the head of the user. In theillustrated embodiment there are four lengthwise rows of perforations,the rows being substantially parallel. It is important to note also thatover approximately the middle 40 to 50% of the length of the curvedsurface (the zone which has been identified by the reference numeral13), the perforations are of greater diameter than those outside thatzone. In my preferred unit the ratio of the diameters is 2 to l, i.e.the perforations in zone 13 are twice the diameter of those outside it.

A specific example of a suitable arrangement is to provide perforationsof inch in diameter within zone 13 while those outside are l/l6 inch.

The purpose of the size control of the perforations is to assure that agreater amount of heated air per unit of time will be delivered to thecrown of the head than at the sides. I have found that by proportioningthe flow of heated air in this manner, the hair on the crown can bedried at substantially the same rate as at the sides.

The manner of use of the dryer should be fairly evident from thedescription and drawing. With the blower and heater unit in the oncondition, the applicator 11 is grasped in one hand and held so that thearched tube is generally centered over and transversly of the head. Anarray of jets of heated air in an inverse fan-like pattern will bedelivered toward the head to circulate the heated air in and around thehair. The applicator can be swept forward and backward, thus to providedrying to the entire head. If there are portions of the head which dryfaster than others the unit can be held longer on the yet undriedportions. The dryer has the advantage also that it can be used fordrying while permitting at the same time the employment of the otherhand for manipulation of a styling implement, such as a comb. Also, itwill be evident that the applicator may be shifted from the right to theleft hand as is convenient.

While I have shown the dryer with a stationary heater and blower andflexible hose, it will be evident that the applicator 11 can also bemounted to the outlet of a portable hand held blower of any appropriatedesign which would in effect replace and become part of the hand grip11b.

From the foregoing, it will be seen that this invention is one welladapted to attain all of the ends and objects hereinabove set forthtogether with other advantages which are obvious and which are inherentto the structure.

It will be understood that certain features and subcombinations are ofutility and may be employed without reference to other features andsubcombinations.

As many possible embodiments may be made of the invention withoutdeparting from the scope thereof, it is to be understood that all matterherein set forth or shown in the accompanying drawings is to beinterpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. In a portable hair dryer, the combination of a combined blower andheater unit producing a con fined stream of heated air at a dischargeoutlet, an arched tube having an inlet end, a central portion,

side portions extending oppositely from said central portion, saidcentral portion and side portions of a combined length such that whenthe central portion is above the crown of the head of the user the sideportions will extend down the opposite sides of the head, and a handgrip portion formed as a substantially linear continuation of one ofsaid side portions and located between said one side portion and saidinlet end, said hand grip portion providing means by which the user cansupport and manipulate said tube fore and aft, above and behind the headwith the center portion generally centered with respect to the fore andaft center plane of the head,

an elongate flexible conduit connecting said inlet end of said tube withsaid discharge outlet,

said central and side portions of said tube provided with air outletmeans along the inter curve thereof whereby to create an inversefan-like array of forced, heated air which can be directed inwardlytoward the crown and sides of the head of the user and moved fore andaft by fore and aft movement of said tube relative to the head of theuser.

2. The combination as in claim 1,

said outlet means so constructed as to provide discharge of air at thecentral portion at a flow rate exceeding that at the side portions.

3. The combination as in claim 2,

said outlet means comprising a plurality of openings spaced along theinside curve of the tube with the openings in the central portion ofgreater cross sectional area than those of the side portions.

1. In a portable hair dryer, the combination of a combined blower andheater unit producing a confined stream of heated air at a dischargeoutlet, an arched tube having an inlet end, a central portion, sideportions extending oppositely from said central portion, said centralportion and side portions of a combined length such that when thecentral portion is above the crown of the head of the user the sideportions will extend down the opposite sides of the head, and a handgrip portion formed as a substantially linear continuation of one ofsaid side portions and located between said one side portion and saidinlet end, said hand grip portion providing means by which the user cansupport and manipulate said tube fore and aft, above and behind the headwith the center portion generally centered with respect to the fore andaft center plane of the head, an elongate flexible conduit connectingsaid inlet end of said tube with said discharge outlet, said central andside portions of said tube provided with air outlet means along theinter curve thereof whereby to create an inverse fan-like array offorced, heated air which can be directed inwardly toward the crown andsides of the head of the user and moved fore and aft by fore and aftmovement of said tube relative to the head of the user.
 2. Thecombination as in claim 1, said outlet means so constructed as toprovide discharge of air at the central portion at a flow rate exceedingthat at the side portions.
 3. The combination as in claim 2, said outletmeans comprising a plurality of openings spaced along the inside curveof the tube with the openings in the central portion of greater crosssectional area than those of the side portions.